Predictive services for devices supporting dynamic direction information

ABSTRACT

With the addition of directional information in the environment, a variety of service(s) can be provided on top of user identification or interaction with specific object(s) of interest by pointing at the objects. Sometimes either the device user and/or the publishers of content cannot complete a content exchange associated with a point of interest (POI) fast enough for the content to remain relevant. Thus, POIs and content for POIs can be predicted for users based on a variety of factors, such as an analysis of their present path and directional changes, rates of changes, or other factors, such that there is no noticeable, or minimal, latency between information being available with respect to such POIs and a request made via the user&#39;s device for such POI information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/476,417 filed on Jun. 2, 2009, entitled “PREDICTIVE SERVICES FORDEVICES SUPPORTING DYNAMIC DIRECTION INFORMATION,” which issued as U.S.Pat. No. 9,200,901 on Dec. 1, 2015, which claims the benefit of andpriority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/073,849, filed onJun. 19, 2008, entitled “MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICES, ARCHITECTURE AND USERINTERFACES BASED ON DYNAMIC DIRECTION INFORMATION,” U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 61/074,415, filed on Jun. 20, 2008, entitled“MOBILE COMPUTING SERVICES BASED ON DEVICES WITH DYNAMIC DIRECTIONINFORMATION,” and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/074,590,filed on Jun. 20, 2008, entitled “MOBILE COMPUTING SERVICES BASED ONDEVICES WITH DYNAMIC DIRECTION INFORMATION,” all of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The subject disclosure relates to the provision of direction-basedservices for a device based on direction information and/or otherinformation such as location information, and to predictive servicesthat predict content in advance for more efficient direction-basedservices.

BACKGROUND

By way of background concerning some conventional systems, mobiledevices, such as portable laptops, PDAs, mobile phones, navigationdevices, and the like have been equipped with location based services,such as global positioning system (GPS) systems, WiFi, cell towertriangulation, etc. that can determine and record a position of mobiledevices. For instance, GPS systems use triangulation of signals receivedfrom various satellites placed in orbit around Earth to determine deviceposition. A variety of map-based services have emerged from theinclusion of such location based systems that help users of thesedevices to be found on a map and to facilitate point to point navigationin real-time and search for locations near a point on a map.

However, such navigation and search scenarios are currently limited todisplaying relatively static information about endpoints and navigationroutes. While some of these devices with location based navigation orsearch capabilities allow update of the bulk data representing endpointinformation via a network, e.g., when connected to a networked portablecomputer (PC) or laptop, such data again becomes fixed in time.Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a set of richerexperiences for users than conventional experiences predicated onlocation and conventional processing of static bulk data representingpotential endpoints of interest.

Moreover, with conventional navigation systems, a user may wish torequest information about a particular point of interest (POI), but ifthe user is moving quickly (e.g., in a car), the user may already bepast the POI by the time the data about the POI becomes available. Theuser experience suffers as a result since users cannot interact with thedesired information in relational or temporal proximity to the desire,e.g., due to delays in retrieving the desired information.

The above-described deficiencies of today's location based systems anddevices are merely intended to provide an overview of some of theproblems of conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive.Other problems with the state of the art and corresponding benefits ofsome of the various non-limiting embodiments may become further apparentupon review of the following detailed description.

SUMMARY

A simplified summary is provided herein to help enable a basic orgeneral understanding of various aspects of exemplary, non-limitingembodiments that follow in the more detailed description and theaccompanying drawings. This summary is not intended, however, as anextensive or exhaustive overview. Instead, the sole purpose of thissummary is to present some concepts related to some exemplarynon-limiting embodiments in a simplified form as a prelude to the moredetailed description of the various embodiments that follow.

Direction based pointing services are provided for portable devices ormobile endpoints. Mobile endpoints can include a positional componentfor receiving positional information as a function of a location of theportable electronic device, a directional component that outputsdirection information as a function of an orientation of the portableelectronic device and a processing engine that processes the positionalinformation and the direction information to determine a subset ofpoints of interest relative to the portable electronic device as afunction of the positional information and/or the direction information.

Devices or endpoints can include compass(es), e.g., magnetic orgyroscopic, to determine a direction and location based systems fordetermining location, e.g., GPS. To supplement the positionalinformation and/or the direction information, devices or endpoints canalso include component(s) for determining speed and/or accelerationinformation for processing by the engine, e.g., to aid in thedetermination of gestures made with the device.

With the addition of directional information in the environment, avariety of service(s) can be provided on top of user identification orinteraction with specific object(s) of interest. For instance, POIs andcontent for POIs can be predicted for users based on a variety offactors, such as an analysis of their present path and directionalchanges, rates of changes, or other factors, such that there is nonoticeable, or minimal, latency between information being available withrespect to such POIs and a request made via the user's device for suchPOI information.

Various embodiments include determining direction information as afunction of a direction for the device and position information as afunction of a position for the device. Using at least the direction andposition information, a set of points of interest are predicted forfuture interaction. Then, information for at least a subset of thepredicted points of interest is downloaded to or otherwise received in alocal memory of the device based on probability of future interaction sothat the information for the future interaction is already availablefrom the local memory.

These and other embodiments are described in more detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various non-limiting embodiments are further described with reference tothe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a non-limiting device architecturefor predictive pointing based services;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary non-limiting flow diagram of a line of sightprocess for performing direction based services with respect to pointsof interest;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a representative segmentation oflocal memory of a device to support predictive pointing based services;

FIG. 4 illustrates a process for predicting points of interest and agingout old points of interest in a region-based algorithm;

FIG. 5 illustrates a process for predicting points of interest and agingout old points of interest in a time-based algorithm;

FIG. 6 illustrates a process for predicting points of interest and agingout old points of interest in an application context-based algorithm;

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment for predicting points of interest inthe context of advertising;

FIG. 8 illustrates a first process for a device upon receiving alocation and direction event;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating client to service support ofpredictive pointing based services;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a representative architecturefor supporting predictive pointing based services;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a representative device forsupporting predictive pointing based services;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an advertising architecture and processesfor providing predictive pointing based services;

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of a non-limiting process for providingpredictive pointing based services;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating the formation of motion vectorsfor use in connection with location based services;

FIG. 15, FIG. 16 and FIG. 17 illustrate aspects of algorithms fordetermining intersection endpoints with a pointing direction of adevice;

FIG. 18 represents a generic user interface for a mobile device forrepresenting points of interest based on pointing information;

FIG. 19 represents some exemplary, non-limiting alternatives for userinterfaces for representing point of interest information;

FIG. 20 represents some exemplary, non-limiting fields or user interfacewindows for displaying static and dynamic information about a givenpoint of interest;

FIG. 21 illustrates a sample overlay user interface for overlaying pointof interest information over a camera view of a mobile device;

FIG. 22 illustrates a general process for a device upon receiving alocation and direction event;

FIG. 23 is a block diagram representing an exemplary non-limitingnetworked environment in which embodiment(s) may be implemented; and

FIG. 24 is a block diagram representing an exemplary non-limitingcomputing system or operating environment in which aspects ofembodiment(s) may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

Among other things, current location services systems and services,e.g., GPS, cell triangulation, P2P location service, such as Bluetooth,WiFi, etc., tend to be based on the location of the device only, andtend to provide static experiences that are not tailored to a userbecause the data about endpoints of interest is relatively static, orfixed in time. Another problem is that a user may wish to interact witha particular point of interest (POI) via a user device in real-time,which conventionally requires a fast network exchange, which is notalways available or possible.

However, if a network exchange relating to one or more POIs that arepredicted to be within proximity soon or otherwise in the future can beanticipated, information about or content relating to such exchange canbe predictively downloaded to the user device ready for such POIinteraction. Such prediction can be predicated on different factorsalone or in combination, such as data about the user, e.g., what theuser likes and does not like, data about a path the user is taking orlikely to take, an application being executed by the device, and so on.For instance, if a real estate application is being executed, then realestate POI information can be predictively downloaded to the device. Inthis way, even if the user is moving quickly, information about passingPOIs is nonetheless made available at the device instantly, e.g.,because it has already been placed in fast access memory, such as cachememory, based on where the user is expected to be, in what the user isexpected to be interested, etc. The user experience is thussubstantially improved since users can interact with POI informationimmediately when in proximity to the corresponding POIs.

At least partly in consideration of these deficiencies of conventionallocation based services, various embodiments of a portable device areprovided that use direction information, position information and/ormotion information to predict content for POIs that a device is likelyto encounter or with which the device is likely to interact. A way tointeract with POIs is thus provided via a device having access todirection information about a direction of the device, positioninformation about a position of the device and optional motioninformation, wherein based on the information, the device intelligentlypre-fetches content regarding POIs based on what is likely to be ofinterest to the user, e.g., based on speed, path history, present path,preferences, context, time, or other filtering characteristics. Avariety of real-time scenarios are explored where predictive cachingachieves efficient user experiences in the system. Accordingly, based onone or more of direction, position or motion information, a devicepredicts content for delivery regarding POIs so that the content isreadied when the user arrives at the POIs.

While each of the various embodiments herein are presentedindependently, e.g., as part of the sequence of respective Figures, onecan appreciate that a portable device and/or associated networkservices, as described, can incorporate or combine two or more of any ofthe embodiments. Given that each of the various embodiments improve theoverall services ecosystem in which users wish to operate, together asynergy results from combining different benefits. Accordingly, thecombination of different embodiments described below shall be consideredherein to represent a host of further alternate embodiments.

A non-limiting device provisioned for direction based services caninclude an engine for analyzing location information (e.g., GPS, cellphone triangulation, etc.), direction information such as compassinformation (e.g., North, West, South, East, up, down, etc.), andoptionally movement information (e.g., accelerometer information) toallow a platform for pointing to and thereby finding objects of interestin a user's environment. A variety of scenarios are contemplated basedon a user finding information of interest about objects of interests,such as restaurants, or other items around an individual, or persons,places or events of interest nearby a user and tailoring information tothat user (e.g., coupons, advertisements), however such information isof no use if it is not available at the time of user need.

In one embodiment, a method for displaying point of interest informationon a mobile device is provided. Direction information and positioninformation are determined as a function of a direction and position forthe device, respectively. A set of points of interest for futureinteraction are predicted based on the direction information and theposition information. In this manner, the device can pre-fetch point ofinterest information into a local memory for at least a subset of thepoints of interest of the set based on a probability of a futureinteraction with at least the subset of the points of interest. Motioninformation measured as a function of movement of the device can also beincluded in the predicting.

To pre-fetch information, identifiers associated with the points ofinterest of the set can be sent to a network service enablinginformation about the points of interest to be received in the localmemory. The predicting can include receiving explicit input with respectto one or more POIs to be included in the set. The predicting can alsoinclude receiving at least one of a gesture input, a keyword input, anaudio input, a video camera input or a touchscreen input with respect toone or more POIs to be included in the set. The predicting can alsoinclude receiving implicit input with respect to the one or more POIs tobe included in the set.

In another embodiment, a portable electronic device is providedincluding a memory storing at least information related to at least onepoint of interest, a positional component for receiving positioninformation as a function of a location of the portable electronicdevice, a directional component that outputs direction information as afunction of an orientation of the portable electronic device, and atleast one processor configured to process the position information andthe direction information to determine at least one identifier of atleast one point of interest within a predicted scope of the device, topre-fetch advertisement information corresponding to the at least oneidentifier of the at least one point of interest, and to display thepre-fetched advertisement information if the device interacts with theat least one point of interest with the device.

The device can include a pointer that visually indicates the orientationof the portable electronic device based upon which the directionalcomponent outputs the direction information. The device can include anaudio device for rendering audio content of the advertisementinformation if a condition upon which the predicted interaction ispredicated occurs. The directional component can be a digital compassthat outputs the direction information.

In another non-limiting embodiment, a method for displaying point ofinterest information on a mobile device comprises determining directioninformation based on an orientation for the device, determining positioninformation as a function of a position for the device, identifying aregion of real space that the device is unlikely to encounter in thefuture based on the direction information and the position information,and aging out, from a local cache of the device, point of interestinformation for a set of points of interest in the region that thedevice is unlikely to encounter. Motion information can also be factoredinto which points of interest to age out.

Details of various other exemplary, non-limiting embodiments areprovided below.

Predictive Services for Devices Supporting Dynamic Direction Information

In this regard, users can interact with the endpoints in a host ofcontext sensitive ways to provide or update information associated withendpoints of interest, or to receive beneficial information orinstruments (e.g., coupons, offers, etc.) from entities associated withthe endpoints of interest, and any of such actions can be facilitated bypre-fetched information, content, advertising, etc. that can relate toPOIs with which the user is predicted to interact in the future. In oneembodiment, information is predictively stored/updated in a local cacheas the user/device moves, so that information about endpoints ofpotential interest to a user's present position and path is alreadyavailable on the device by the time the user requests the information.

For instance, FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile computing device 100 accordingto an embodiment. In this regard, a set of services 160 can be builtbased on location information 122 and direction information 132collected by the phone. For instance, location information 122 can berecorded by a location subsystem 120 such as a GPS subsystemcommunicating with GPS satellites 140. Direction or pointing information132 can be collected by a direction subsystem 130, such as a compass,e.g., gyroscopic, magnetic, digital compass, etc. In addition,optionally, movement information 112 can be gathered by the device 100,e.g., via tower triangulation algorithms, and/or acceleration of thedevice 100 can be measured as well, e.g., with an accelerometer. Thecollective information 150 can be used to gain a sense of not only wherethe device 100 is located in relation to other potential points ofinterest tracked or known by the overall set of services 160, but alsowhat direction the user is pointing the device 100, so that the services160 can appreciate at whom or what the user is pointing the device 100.

In addition, a gesture subsystem 170 can optionally be included, whichcan be predicated on any one or more of the motion information 112,location information 122 or direction information 132. In this regard,not only can direction information 132 and location information 122 beused to define a set of unique gestures, but also motion information 112can be used to define an even more complicated set of gestures. Thegesture monitor 170 produces gesture information 172, which can be inputas appropriate in connection with delivering services 160.

As mentioned, in another aspect, a device 100 can include a client sidememory 180, such as a cache, of potentially relevant points of interest,which, based on the user's movement history can be dynamically updated.The context, such as geography, speed, etc. of the user can be factoredin when updating. For instance, if a user's velocity is 2 miles an hour,the user may be walking and interested in updates at a city block bycity block level, or at a lower level granularity if they are walking inthe countryside. Similarly, if a user is moving on a highway at 60 milesper hour, the block-by-block updates of information are no longerdesirable, but rather a granularity can be provided and predictivelycached on the device 100 that makes sense for the speed of the vehicle.

A representative interaction with a pointing device as provided in oneor more embodiments herein is illustrated in FIG. 2. At 200,location/direction vector information is determined based on the devicemeasurements. This information can be recorded so that a user's path orpast can be used when predictively factoring what the user will beinterested in next, as illustrated at 210. The predicting can be madebased on a variety of other factors as well, such as context,application, user history, preferences, path, time of day, proximity,etc. such that the object(s) or POI(s) a user is most likely to interactwith in the future are identified.

At 220, based on the object(s) or POI(s) identified at 210, predictiveinformation is pre-fetched or otherwise pre-processed for use with thepredicted services with respect to such object(s) or POI(s). Then, basedon current vector information, or more informally, the act of pointingby the user, at 230, an object or point of interest is selected based onany of a variety of “line of sight” algorithms that determine whatPOI(s) are currently within (or outside) of the vector path. It is notedthat occlusion culling techniques can optionally be used to facilitateoverlay techniques. In this regard, at 240, based at least in part onthe pre-fetched or pre-processed predictive information, services areperformed with respect to the object(s) or POI(s).

Additionally, whether the point of interest at issue falls within thevector can factor in the error in precision of any of the measurements,e.g., different GPS subsystems have different error in precision. Inthis regard, one or more items or points of interest may be found alongthe vector path or arc, within a certain distance depending on context.As mentioned, at 240, any of a great variety of services can beperformed with respect to any point of interest selected by the user viaa user interface. Where only one point of interest is concerned, theservice can be automatically performed with respect to the point ofinterest.

For existing motor vehicle navigation devices, or other conventionalportable GPS navigation devices, where a device does not nativelyinclude directional means such as a compass, the device can have anextension slot that accommodates direction information from an externaldirectional device, such as a compass. Similarly, for laptops or otherportable electronic devices, such devices can be outfitted with a cardor board with a slot for a compass. While any of the services describedherein can make web service calls as part of the pointing and retrievalof endpoint process, as mentioned, limited bandwidth may degrade theinteractive experience. As a result, a limited amount of data can bepredictively maintained on a user's device in cache memory andoptionally aged out as data becomes stale, e.g., when relevance to theuser falls below a threshold.

In this regard, FIG. 3 illustrates that local device memory 300, such ascache memory, can include three general categories of information inconnection with the predictive pointer based services. As mentioned, afirst category includes information that is being predicted to berelevant POI data 310. This data 310 can be a combination of POI datathat is currently being pre-fetched and/or POI data that has alreadybeen pre-fetched. Currently relevant POI data 320 is POI data with whichthe user can presently interact in real-time since the POI data 320 hasbeen pre-fetched and the user is within interaction range of thecorresponding POIs. A third category of POI data includes aged out POIdata 330, which can be data that has already been deleted, or which willbe deleted upon meeting further criteria, such as age of POI data 330,distance from the associated POIs, etc.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example region based predictionalgorithm 400 that takes into account user path and heading, e.g., as auser has moved from age out candidate 410 to the present location 402,and based on a current user path, locations 404 and 406 are predictedfor the user. Accordingly, based on the direction and location basedpath history, POI data for locations 404 and 406 can be pre-fetched tolocal memory of the device. Similarly, location 410 becomes the topicfor a decision as to when to age out the data. Such an age out decisioncan also be made based on the amount of unused space remaining in memoryof the device.

While FIG. 4 illustrates a path based algorithm, as mentioned, otheralgorithms can be used to predict what POIs will be of interest as well.For instance, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a temporal pre-fetch and ageout process. In this regard, the left side of FIG. 5 representslunchtime 500 and the right side of FIG. 5 represents dinnertime 510. Atlunchtime 500, a breakfast location 506 may be a POI that is subject toage out conditions, the user may be actually located at 504, and basedon past behavior, the user is predicted to go to lunch at location 502.Thus, information about location 502 is pre-fetched for potential userinteraction. However, as time passes, at dinnertime 510, the relevanceof various POIs changes. For instance, the lunch location may be closedat dinnertime, and so location 502 becomes age out lunch location 512subject to age-out criteria. The user has moved again to location 504,but at dinnertime, the algorithm predicts that a dinner location 516 isselected, and thus information, content, etc. relating to dinnerlocation 516 and potential user interactions with dinner location 516are pre-fetched to the user device.

FIG. 6 in turn illustrates yet another predictive algorithm that can beemployed to pre-fetch POI data, alone or in combination, with the otheralgorithms. In this example, application context drives POI relevancy toa user in determining what POI data to age out, maintain for currentinteractions, or predict. For instance, previously a user may have beenusing a first application called “App1,” however at some time later, theuser switched to a second application called “App2.” This later time isillustrated on the left side of FIG. 6. Then, at some even later time,the user again switches to a third application called “App3.” In such anembodiment, the POI locations 600 for App2 that will have POI datapredictively pre-fetched will be different than under the circumstancesof POI locations for App3. For instance, with pre-fetching of App2locations, perhaps App1 location 606 is aged out, a user's presentlocation is at location 604, and POI locations 602 are particularlypertinent to the use of App2. In contrast, with pre-fetching of App3locations, even if the user's present location stays the same at 604,the POI locations 616 that are pertinent to App3 may be different thanPOI locations 602, which may be aged out when using App3 as shown at ageout App2 location 612.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an alternate embodiment of segmenting alocal memory 700 of a device according to an advertising embodiment. Inthis regard, based on user data, such as purchase history and the like,POIs can be predictive relevance in terms of their advertising value.Thus, memory 700 can include advertisements for POIs predicted to berelevant 710, currently relevant advertisements for POIs 720 andadvertisements for POIs 730 that are being aged out of memory based onlow threshold relevance.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram generally illustrating a pre-fetch processbased on user path. After receiving location and direction events, at800, it is determined whether predictive caching should be initiated fora next region to which a user is travelling. If so, then at 810, thenext region of data is pre-fetched. At 820, optionally, old regionaldata no longer of current relevance can be aged out. Next, at 830, withthe data pre-fetched, a user can interact with the pre-fetched endpointsfor the next region of data, and usage data can be uploaded, e.g.,synchronized to the service for enhanced business intelligence, moreeffective advertising, etc. in the future. In this way, the predictivecapabilities of the pointer device become better over time as more andmore is gathered and known about the usage patterns of the particulardevice, as well as particular users, where multiple users employ thepointer based services of the device.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating further ways to determine how topredict POIs. For instance, a device 900 having POI information frompointing with the device can include ways 902 to explicitly identify,e.g., by selecting, the POIs for predicted interaction 902, or ways 904to implicitly identify, e.g., by indicating low blood sugar via abiometric, that food is desirable. In this regard, criteria forprediction 910 can therefore include explicitly identified criteria 912or implicitly identified criteria 914 in connection with direction basedservices 920. The prediction criteria 910 therefore define whatinformation to pre-fetch for predicted interaction 930.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an exemplary general architecture fordelivering pointer based services 1010 that predictively pre-fetches POIinformation according to one or more embodiments. Location information1000 (e.g., WiFi, GLS, tower triangulation, etc.), direction information1002 (e.g., digital compass) and user intent information 1004, which canbe implicit or explicit, are input to services 1010, which may be anyone or more of web services 1012, cloud services 1014 or other dataservices 1016. As a result, pre-fetched content 1040 is returned forefficient real-time interactions with POIs of current relevance.Pre-fetched data can come from more than one storage layer orabstraction 1020, 1022, 1024, . . . , or abstraction 1030, 1032, 1034, .. . , e.g., from local server databases or remote third party storagelocations.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary non-limiting device 1100 includingprocessor(s) 1110 having a position engine or subsystem 1120 fordetermining a location of the device 1100 and a direction engine orsubsystem 1130 for determining a direction or orientation of the device1100. Then, by interacting with local application(s) 1140 and/orservice(s) 1170, content can be predictively delivered to the device,which can tailored to device intent and a place in which the device ispresent, or other factors. When the predicted content is displayedaccording to a predicted interaction, the tailored content can berendered by graphic subsystem or display/UI 1150 or audio subsystem1160. In one non-limiting embodiment, point structure 1190 is included,e.g., a triangular or other polygonal piece that points along anorientation line 1195 upon which directional calculations are based.Similarly, the orientation line 1195 can be indicated by graphicssubsystem display/UI 1150 with or without point structure 1190. In thisregard, various embodiments herein enable predicted POI ID information1180 to be pre-fetched from services 1170 so that the predictedinteractions can occur in the future as assisted by services 1170.

While there are a variety of implementations, and ways to sub-divideregions, whether overlapping or not, predictive caching and aging canthus be performed in which a user's present location is discerned. Thelocal cache may still include age out candidate locations, but as thevelocity of the user indicates the user will be at various otherpredicted locations in the future, these regions of POIs associated withthe predicted locations are downloaded to the mobile device.Accordingly, as the user travels to predicted locations, the user nolonger needs the data from the age out candidate locations, which canthen be removed, or flagged for removal when storage is challenged.

Accordingly, using the regional data cache, callbacks and an updatemechanism that is updated dynamically based on movement, new point ofinterest can be added by a service or by a user. Update is thusperformed continuously or substantially continuously based on updatedtravel, velocity, speed, etc. In this regard, a user can add a new pointof interest in the region, add info to a local cache, and then upload tothe zone. To appreciate the problem, the number of worldwide POIs ispractically limitless, however only a small number of POIs will berelevant to a user at a given time. Thus, predictively, a cube of datacan be taken to the device, the user can go offline such that when theuser reconnects, the device is intelligent to figure out what haschanged, been weighted, etc., so that the device can synchronize withthe network services and expose the user's changes for other people.

As mentioned, the predictive algorithms can depend on what the user isinterested in finding, what service the user may be using, the contextof the user, etc. They can also be based on velocity, direction, time,etc. For instance, if it is nighttime, assumptions based on demographicsor preferences may lead the device to return information aboutnightclubs or all night diners. Or, instead of giving directions asdriving directions that calculate distances as absolute distances, i.e.,as the crow flies, a device can take road curves into account sinceinstantaneous pointing information on roads can be collected and handledby a corresponding service when giving driving directions. Or, asanother alternative, the direction one is heading on a road, such as ahighway with a concrete divider, is relevant to the directions that anavigation system should give. Where a U-turn is unavailable and userpasses an exit with a point of interest, for instance, directions shouldtake this into account and consider the heading of the vehicle.

Any device can include the embodiments described herein, including MP3players, such as a Zune device, GPS navigation devices, bike computers,sunglass/visor systems, motor vehicles, mobile phones, laptops, PDA,etc.

One way to obtain the service applications, assuming the underlyingmeasuring instruments to participate in the real-time gathering ofdirectional information, is to message to a service to obtain theapplication, e.g., by text messaging to service, or getting a clientdownload link. Another vehicle for enabling the service is to provide itnatively in the operating system or applications of a mobile devices.Since a hardware abstraction layer accommodates different methods forcollecting position, direction, acceleration information, the sameplatform can be used on any device regardless of the precise underlyinghardware.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a potential benefit of thepredicted POI content 1220 for devices supporting direction basedservices 1220 based on location information 1240 and directioninformation 1250, namely, a kind of future advertising opportunity 1230.Based on aggregate data, business intelligence can price based onstatistics and other factors, the cost for a future advertisingopportunity 1230. In short, if Coca Cola believes that it is likely thata user will be nearby Coca Cola merchandise soon, there is value to CocaCola in accelerating the process of getting information to the user'sdevice about a Coke coupon, such that the Coke coupon pops upimmediately when the user is within 10 feet of a Coke retailer. Even ifthe opportunity 1230 does not happen, Coca Cola is still willing to paysome price based on the likelihood that 70 out of 100 users at a givenposition will actually go within 10 feet of a Coke retailer.

Due to the enhanced interactive skills of a device provisioned fordirection based location services, FIG. 12 also illustrates a variety ofdevice interactions that help to form aggregate and individual user datafor purposes of input to a business intelligence and advertising engine1230. By measuring interactions with points of interest via text 1200,search 1202, barcode scan 1204, image scan 1206, designation/selectionof item of interest 1208, price compare operations 1210, gesture input1212, other interaction with item of interest 1214, voice input, etc., alot of user knowledge is gained that can help determine probabilitiessufficient to trigger advertising opportunities for interested entities1230.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment forpredictively downloading content to a device based on anticipated pointsof interest. At 1300, direction information is determined as a functionof a direction for the device (e.g., compass) and at 1310, positioninformation is determined as a function of a position for the device(e.g., GPS subsystem). At 1320, a set of points of interest arepredicted for future interaction based on the direction information andthe position information (and optionally motion information, e.g., fromaccelerometer). The set can also be predicted based on user data,trends, etc. Then at 1330, point of interest information for some or allof the predicted point(s) of interest is received based on probabilityof future interaction, e.g., retrieved, downloaded, stored, processed,or otherwise made ready for interaction on the direction based servicesenabled device. At 1340, optionally, point of interest information forpoints of interest that the device is unlikely to encounter can be agedout from local memory.

With location services, it can be determined that a user's device isphysically inside an actual store, or near a window display of a store.Coupling that to the user's interacting with an object of interest withdirection information to enable direction-based services results in anew opportunity to take action based on the predicted interaction withspecific items. For instance, when near an actual store, a localgeo-cache from the store can be pre-fetched to the user's device sinceit is likely that the user will interact with one or more POIs in thestore in the future.

As mentioned, a device can include a directional component that outputsdirection information as a function of an orientation of the portableelectronic device and that facilitates determining an intent of thedevice. The directional component can optionally be a digital compassthat outputs the direction information. The device can determine asubset of items of interest relative to candidate items of interestwithin a 3-D space as a function of the positional information or thedirection information.

Interacting with an endpoint can include orientating the device towardsome item(s) of interest and determining direction informationassociated with the orientation of the device from which a subset of theitem(s) of interest are identified. For instance, interacting caninclude pointing the device in a direction defining a pointing linegenerally towards items of interest in the place(s) and determining aset of candidate items of interest as a subset of items of interest thatsubstantially intersect with the pointing line, and enabling theselection of one or more items from the set of candidate items.

In one embodiment, a method for a device provisioned for direction basedservices comprises determining direction information associated with apointed to direction relative to a pre-defined orientation of the deviceand identifying POIs within an area defined as a function of the pointedto direction including determining which of a set of POIs intersect withthe area. Next, based on predicted information with respect to the POIsalready received by the device, information corresponding to the POIsidentified within the area is displayed, e.g., on a map or list. In oneembodiment, as new POIs are predicted to be within range of the devicesoon, the IDs associated with the designated POIs are transmitted to anetwork service enabling static information and/or dynamic informationabout the designated POIs to be pre-fetched from the service.

The designation of POIs for interaction can include explicit input withrespect to the designated one or more POIs, such as one or more of agesture input, a keyword input, an audio input, a video camera input ora touchscreen input with respect to the one or more POIs. Thedesignation of POIs for interaction can include implicit input withrespect to the designated one or more POIs including making inferencesabout the interaction based on a context of present interaction.

The displaying of POI information can be made on a topographical mapvisually representing at least the area defined as a function of apointed to direction and graphical indications of the POIs can bedisplayed within the area at corresponding locations on thetopographical map view. The POIs can also be represented in a filteredlist view, e.g., filtered by restaurants in the area. The designating ofPOIs can include designating pre-defined criteria explicitly orimplicitly. The designating can include marking one or more POIs withtouchscreen input relating to the one or more designated POIs, taggingthe one or more POIs with tag information, or other ways to designatePOIs for interaction, whereby content with respect to the POIs has beenpredictively fetched in local memory of the device.

In another embodiment, a portable electronic device includes apositional component for receiving position information as a function ofa location of the portable electronic device and a directional componentthat outputs direction information as a function of an orientation ofthe portable electronic device. In addition, the device includes aprocessor configured to process the position information and thedirection information to determine identifiers or IDs of POIs within apre-defined geographical area of the device, interact with a selectedID, having already received information about the POI corresponding tothe selected identifier, and receive input regarding the selected IDdefining an interaction.

Information about the selected ID defining the future interaction istransmitted along with the point of interest to a network service. Inone embodiment, a pointer structure is provided on the device thatvisually indicates the orientation of the portable electronic devicebased upon which the directional component outputs the directioninformation. For example, this could be a triangular structure thatcomes to a point to show a primary orientation of the device. This couldalso be indicated on the display of the device during provision ofdirection based services.

In one embodiment, the position information and the directioninformation determine a pointing line and a set of candidate points ofinterest are determined as a subset of points of interest thatsubstantially intersect with a function based on the pointing line. Anintersection test for determining subsets of points of interest caninclude defining an arc based on an angle with respect to a pointingline, defining a cone based on an angle with respect to the pointingline, or a line function defining a rectangular space oriented along thepointing line (2-D or 3-D depending on the application). A speaker canrender audio content if a condition upon which the predicted interactionis predicated occurs. The directional component can be a digital compassthat outputs the direction information.

In another embodiment, a method comprises determining a place in which aportable device is located based on location information determined forthe device and identifying a subset of items of interest in the placeincluding determining an orientation of the device based on directioninformation of the device and determining the subset of items ofinterest in the place as a function of the orientation. Next, input withrespect to an item of the subset of items is received defining aninteraction with the item. Predicted interactions can include receivinga notification when a characteristic of an item meets a pre-definedcondition, such as when a price of the item meets a target pricecondition, thereby initiating the predicted interaction.

Supplemental Context Regarding Pointing Devices, Architectures andServices

The following description contains supplemental context regardingpotential non-limiting pointing devices, architectures and associatedservices to further aid in understanding one or more of the aboveembodiments. Any one or more of any additional features described inthis section can be accommodated in any one or more of the embodimentsdescribed above with respect to predictive direction based services at aparticular location for given POI(s). While such combinations ofembodiments or features are possible, for the avoidance of doubt, noembodiments set forth in the subject disclosure should be consideredlimiting on any other embodiments described herein.

As mentioned, a broad range of scenarios can be enabled by a device thatcan take location and direction information about the device and build aservice on top of that information. For example, by using anaccelerometer in coordination with an on board digital compass, anapplication running on a mobile device updates what each endpoint is“looking at” or pointed towards, attempting hit detection on potentialpoints of interest to either produce real-time information for thedevice or to allow the user to select a range, or using the GPS, alocation on a map, and set information such as “Starbucks—10% offcappuccinos today” or “The Alamo—site of . . . ” for others to discover.One or more accelerometers can also be used to perform the function ofdetermining direction information for each endpoint as well. Asdescribed herein, these techniques can become more granular toparticular items within a Starbucks, such as “blueberry cheesecake” ondisplay in the counter, enabling a new type of sale opportunity.

Accordingly, a general device for accomplishing this includes aprocessing engine to resolve a line of sight vector sent from a mobileendpoint and a system to aggregate that data as a platform, enabling ahost of new scenarios predicated on the pointing information known forthe device. The act of pointing with a device, such as the user's mobilephone, thus becomes a powerful vehicle for users to discover andinteract with points of interest around the individual in a way that istailored for the individual. Synchronization of data can also beperformed to facilitate roaming and sharing of POV data and contactsamong different users of the same service.

In a variety of embodiments described herein, 2-dimensional (2D),3-dimensional (3D) or N-dimensional directional-based search, discovery,and interactivity services are enabled for endpoints in the system ofpotential interest to the user.

The pointing information and corresponding algorithms depend upon theassets available in a device for producing the pointing or directionalinformation. The pointing information, however produced according to anunderlying set of measurement components, and interpreted by aprocessing engine, can be one or more vectors. A vector or set ofvectors can have a “width” or “arc” associated with the vector for anymargin of error associated with the pointing of the device. A panningangle can be defined by a user with at least two pointing actions toencompass a set of points of interest, e.g., those that span a certainangle defined by a panning gesture by the user.

In one non-limiting embodiment, a portable electronic device includes apositional component for receiving positional information as a functionof a location of the portable electronic device, a directional componentthat outputs direction information as a function of an orientation ofthe portable electronic device and a location based engine thatprocesses the positional information and the direction information todetermine a subset of points of interest relative to the portableelectronic device as a function of at least the positional informationand the direction information.

The positional component can be a positional GPS component for receivingGPS data as the positional information. The directional component can bea magnetic compass and/or a gyroscopic compass that outputs thedirection information. The device can include acceleration component(s),such as accelerometer(s), that outputs acceleration informationassociated with movement of the portable electronic device. The use of aseparate sensor can also be used to further compensate for tilt andaltitude adjustment calculations.

In one embodiment, the device includes a cache memory for dynamicallystoring a subset of endpoints of interest that are relevant to theportable electronic device and at least one interface to a networkservice for transmitting the positional information and the directioninformation to the network service. In return, based on real-timechanges to the positional information and direction/pointinginformation, the device dynamically receives in the cache memory anupdated subset of endpoints that are potentially relevant to theportable electronic device.

For instance, the subset of endpoints can be updated as a function ofendpoints of interest within a pre-defined distance substantially alonga vector defined by the orientation of the portable electronic device.Alternatively or in addition, the subset of endpoints can be updated asa function of endpoints of interest relevant to a current context of theportable electronic device. In this regard, the device can include a setof Representational State Transfer (REST)-based application programminginterfaces (APIs), or other stateless set of APIs, so that the devicecan communicate with the service over different networks, e.g., Wi-Fi, aGPRS network, etc. or communicate with other users of the service, e.g.,Bluetooth. For the avoidance of doubt, the embodiments are in no waylimited to a REST based implementation, but rather any other state orstateful protocol could be used to obtain information from the serviceto the devices.

The directional component outputs direction information includingcompass information based on calibrated and compensatedheading/directionality information. The directional component can alsoinclude direction information indicating upward or downward tiltinformation associated with a current upward or downward tilt of theportable electronic device, so that the services can detect when a useris pointing upwards or downwards with the device in addition to acertain direction. The height of the vectors itself can also be takeninto account to distinguish between an event of pointing with a devicefrom the top of a building (likely pointing to other buildings, bridges,landmarks, etc.) and the same event from the bottom of the building(likely pointing to a shop at ground level), or towards a ceiling orfloor to differentiate among shelves in a supermarket. A 3-axis magneticfield sensor can also be used to implement a compass to obtain tiltreadings.

Secondary sensors, such as altimeters or pressure readers, can also beincluded in a mobile device and used to detect a height of the device,e.g., what floor a device is on in a parking lot or floor of adepartment store (changing the associated map/floorplan data). Where adevice includes a compass with a planar view of the world (e.g., 2-axiscompass), the inclusion of one or more accelerometers in the device canbe used to supplement the motion vector measured for a device as avirtual third component of the motion vector, e.g., to providemeasurements regarding a third degree of freedom. This option may bedeployed where the provision of a 3-axis compass is too expensive, orotherwise unavailable.

In this respect, a gesturing component can also be included in thedevice to determine a current gesture of a user of the portableelectronic device from a set of pre-defined gestures. For example,gestures can include zoom in, zoom out, panning to define an arc, all tohelp filter over potential subsets of points of interest for the user.

For instance, web services can effectively resolve vector coordinatessent from mobile endpoints into <x, y, z> or other coordinates usinglocation data, such as GPS data, as well as configurable, synchronizedPOV information similar to that found in a GPS system in an automobile.In this regard, any of the embodiments can be applied similarly in anymotor vehicle device. One non-limiting use is also facilitation ofendpoint discovery for synchronization of data of interest to or fromthe user from or to the endpoint.

Among other algorithms for interpreting position/motion/directioninformation, as shown in FIG. 14, a device 1400 employing the directionbased location based services 1402 as described herein in a variety ofembodiments herein include a way to discern between near objects, suchas POI 1414 and far objects, such as POI 1416. Depending on the contextof usage, the time, the user's past, the device state, the speed of thedevice, the nature of the POIs, etc., the service can determine ageneral distance associated with a motion vector. Thus, a motion vector1406 will implicate POI 1414, but not POI 1416, and the opposite wouldbe true for motion vector 1408.

In addition, a device 1400 includes an algorithm for discerning itemssubstantially along a direction at which the device is pointing, andthose not substantially along a direction at which the device ispointing. In this respect, while motion vector 1404 might implicate POI1412, without a specific panning gesture that encompassed moredirections/vectors, POIs 1414 and 1416 would likely not be within thescope of points of interest defined by motion vector 1404. The distanceor reach of a vector can also be tuned by a user, e.g., via a slidercontrol or other control, to quickly expand or contract the scope ofendpoints encompassed by a given “pointing” interaction with the device.

In one non-limiting embodiment, the determination of at what or whom theuser is pointing is performed by calculating an absolute “Look” vector,within a suitable margin of error, by a reading from an accelerometer'stilt and a reading from the magnetic compass. Then, an intersection ofendpoints determines an initial scope, which can be further refineddepending on the particular service employed, i.e., any additionalfilter. For instance, for an apartment search service, endpoints fallingwithin the look vector that are not apartments ready for lease, can bepre-filtered.

In addition to the look vector determination, the engine can alsocompensate for, or begin the look vector, where the user is by establishpositioning (˜15 feet) through an A-GPS stack (or other location basedor GPS subsystem including those with assistance strategies) and alsocompensate for any significant movement/acceleration of the device,where such information is available.

As mentioned, in another aspect, a device can include a client sidecache of potentially relevant points of interest, which, based on theuser's movement history can be dynamically updated. The context, such asgeography, speed, etc. of the user can be factored in when updating. Forinstance, if a user's velocity is 2 miles an hour, the user may bewalking and interested in updates at a city block by city block level,or at a lower level granularity if they are walking in the countryside.Similarly, if a user is moving on a highway at 60 miles per hour, theblock-by-block updates of information are no longer desirable, butrather a granularity can be provided and predictively cached on thedevice that makes sense for the speed of the vehicle.

In an automobile context, the location becomes the road on which theautomobile is travelling, and the particular items are the places andthings that are passed on the roadside much like products in aparticular retail store on a shelf or in a display. The pointing basedservices thus creates a virtual “billboard” opportunity for items ofinterest generally along a user's automobile path. Proximity to locationcan lead to an impulse buy, e.g., a user might stop by a museum they arepassing and pointing at with their device, if offered a discount onadmission.

In various alternative embodiments, gyroscopic or magnetic compasses canprovide directional information. A REST based architecture enables datacommunications to occur over different networks, such as Wi-Fi and GPRSarchitectures. REST based APIs can be used, though any statelessmessaging can be used that does not require a long keep alive forcommunicated data/messages. This way, since networks can go down withGPRS antennae, seamless switching can occur to Wi-Fi or Bluetoothnetworks to continue according to the pointing based services enabled bythe embodiments described herein.

A device as provided herein according to one or more embodiments caninclude a file system to interact with a local cache, store updates forsynchronization to the service, exchange information by Bluetooth withother users of the service, etc. Accordingly, operating from a localcache, at least the data in the local cache is still relevant at a timeof disconnection, and thus, the user can still interact with the data.Finally, the device can synchronize according to any updates made at atime of re-connection to a network, or to another device that has moreup to date GPS data, POI data, etc. In this regard, a switchingarchitecture can be adopted for the device to perform a quick transitionfrom connectivity from one networked system (e.g., cell phone towers) toanother computer network (e.g., Wi-Fi) to a local network (e.g., meshnetwork of Bluetooth connected devices).

With respect to user input, a set of soft keys, touch keys, etc. can beprovided to facilitate in the directional-based pointing servicesprovided herein. A device can include a windowing stack in order tooverlay different windows, or provide different windows of informationregarding a point of interest (e.g., hours and phone number windowversus interactive customer feedback window). Audio can be rendered orhandled as input by the device. For instance, voice input can be handledby the service to explicitly point without the need for a physicalmovement of the device. For instance, a user could say into a device“what is this product right in front of me? No, not that one, the oneabove it” and have the device transmit current direction/movementinformation to a service, which in turn intelligently, or iteratively,determines what particular item of interest the user is pointing at, andreturns a host of relevant information about the item.

One non-limiting way for determining a set of points of interest isillustrated in FIG. 15. In FIG. 15, a device 1500 is pointed (e.g.,point and click) in a direction D1, which according to the device orservice parameters, implicitly defines an area within arc 1510 anddistance 1520 that encompasses POI 1530, but does not encompass POI1532. Such an algorithm will also need to determine any edge case POIs,i.e., whether POIs such as POI 1534 are within the scope of pointing indirection D1, where the POI only partially falls within the area definedby arc 1510 and distance 1520.

Other gestures that can be of interest in for a gesturing subsysteminclude recognizing a user's gesture for zoom in or zoom out. Zoomin/zoom out can be done in terms of distance like FIG. 16. In FIG. 16, adevice 1600 pointed in direction D1 may include zoomed in view whichincludes points of interest within distance 1620 and arc 1610, or amedium zoomed view representing points of interest between distance 1620and 1622, or a zoomed out view representing points of interest beyonddistance 1622. These zoom zones correspond to POIs 1630, 1632 and 1634,respectively. More or less zones can be considered depending upon avariety of factors, the service, user preference, etc.

For another non-limiting example, with location information anddirection information, a user can input a first direction via a click,and then a second direction after moving the device via a second click,which in effect defines an arc 1710 for objects of interest in thesystem as illustrated in FIG. 17. For instance, via first pointing actby the user at time t1 in direction D1 and a second pointing act at timet2 by the user in direction D2, an arc 1710 is implicitly defined. Thearea of interest implicitly includes a search of points of object withina distance 1720, which can be zoomed in and out, or selected by theservice based on a known granularity of interest, selected by the user,etc. This can be accomplished with a variety of forms of input to definethe two directions. For instance, the first direction can be definedupon a click-and-hold button event, or other engage-and-hold userinterface element, and the second direction can be defined upon releaseof the button. Similarly, two consecutive clicks corresponding to thetwo different directions D1 and D2 can also be implemented.

Also, instead of focusing on real distance, zooming in or out could alsorepresent a change in terms of granularity, or size, or hierarchy ofobjects. For example, a first pointing gesture with the device mayresult in a shopping mall appearing, but with another gesture, a usercould carry out a recognizable gesture to gain or lose a level ofhierarchical granularity with the points of interest on display. Forinstance, after such gesture, the points of interest could be zoomed into the level of the stores at the shopping mall and what they arecurrently offering.

In addition, a variety of even richer behaviors and gestures can berecognized when acceleration of the device in various axes can bediscerned. Panning, arm extension/retraction, swirling of the device,backhand tennis swings, breaststroke arm action, golf swing motionscould all signify something unique in terms of the behavior of thepointing device, and this is to just name a few motions that could beimplemented in practice. Thus, any of the embodiments herein can definea set of gestures that serve to help the user interact with a set ofservices built on the pointing platform, to help users easily gaininformation about points of information in their environment.

Furthermore, with relatively accurate upward and downward tilt of thedevice, in addition to directional information such as calibrated andcompensated heading/directional information, other services can beenabled. Typically, if a device is ground level, the user is outside,and the device is “pointed” up towards the top of buildings, thegranularity of information about points of interest sought by the user(building level) is different than if the user was pointing at the firstfloor shops of the building (shops level), even where the same compassdirection is implicated. Similarly, where a user is at the top of alandmark such as the Empire State building, a downward tilt at thestreet level (street level granularity) would implicate informationabout different points of interest that if the user of the devicepointed with relatively no tilt at the Statue of Liberty(landmark/building level of granularity).

Also, when a device is moving in a car, it may appear that direction ischanging as the user maintains a pointing action on a single location,but the user is still pointing at the same thing due to displacement.Thus, thus time varying location can be factored into the mathematicsand engine of resolving at what the user is pointing with the device tocompensate for the user experience based upon which all items arerelative.

Accordingly, armed with the device's position, one or more web or cloudservices can analyze the vector information to determine at what or whomthe user is looking/pointing. The service can then provide additionalinformation such as ads, specials, updates, menus, happy hour choices,etc., depending on the endpoint selected, the context of the service,the location (urban or rural), the time (night or day), etc. As aresult, instead of a blank contextless Internet search, a form ofreal-time visual search for users in real 3-D environments is provided.

In one non-limiting embodiment, the direction based pointing servicesare implemented in connection with a pair of glasses, headband, etc.having a corresponding display means that acts in concert with theuser's looking to highlight or overlay features of interest around theuser.

As shown in FIG. 18, once a set of objects is determined from thepointing information according to a variety of contexts of a variety ofservices, a mobile device 1800 can display the objects viarepresentation 1802 according to a variety of user experiences tailoredto the service at issue. For instance, a virtual camera experience canbe provided, where POI graphics or information can be positionedrelative to one another to simulate an imaging experience. A variety ofother user interface experiences can be provided based on the pointingdirection as well.

For instance, a set of different choices are shown in FIG. 19. UI 1900and 1902 illustrate navigation of hierarchical POI information. Forinstance, level1 categories may include category1, category2, category3,category4 and category5, but if a user selects around the categorieswith a thumb-wheel, up-down control, or the like, and chooses one suchas category2. Then, subcategory1, subcategory2, subcategory3 andsubcategory4 are displayed as subcategories of category2. Then, if theuser selects, for instance, subcategory4, perhaps few enough POIs, suchas buildings 1900 and 1910 are found in the subcategory in order todisplay on a 2D map UI 1904 along the pointing direction, oralternatively as a 3D virtual map view 1906 along the pointingdirection.

Once a single POI is implicated or selected, then a full screen view forthe single POI can be displayed, such as the exemplary UI 2000. UI 2000can have one or more of any of the following representative areas. UI2000 can include a static POI image 2002 such as a trademark of a store,or a picture of a person. UI 2000 can also include other media, and astatic POI information portion 2004 for information that tends not tochange such as restaurant hours, menu, contact information, etc. Inaddition, UI 2000 can include an information section for dynamicinformation to be pushed to the user for the POI, e.g., coupons,advertisements, offers, sales, etc. In addition, a dynamic interactiveinformation are 2008 can be included where the user can fill out asurvey, provide feedback to the POI owner, request the POI to contactthe user, make a reservation, buy tickets, etc. UI 2000 also can includea representation of the direction information output by the compass forreference purposes. Further, UI 2000 can include other third partystatic or dynamic content in area 2012.

When things change from the perspective of either the service or theclient, a synchronization process can bring either the client orservice, respectively, up to date. In this way, an ecosystem is enabledwhere a user can point at an object or point of interest, gaininformation about it that is likely to be relevant to the user, interactwith the information concerning the point of interest, and add value toservices ecosystem where the user interacts. The system thusadvantageously supports both static and dynamic content.

Other user interfaces can be considered such as left-right, or up-downarrangements for navigating categories or a special set of soft-keys canbe adaptively provided.

Where a device includes a camera, in one embodiment shown in FIG. 21, arepresentative non-limiting overlay UI 2100 is shown having 3 POIs POI1,POI2 and POI3. The POIs are overlaid over actual image data being realtime viewed on the device via an LCD screen or like display. The actualimage data can be of products on a shelf or other display or exhibit ina store. Thus, as the user aims the camera around his or herenvironment, the lens becomes the pointer, and the POI information canbe overlaid intelligently for discovery of endpoints of interest.Moreover, a similar embodiment can be imagined even without a camera,such as a UI in which 3-D objects are virtually represented based onreal geometries known for the objects relative to the user.

Thus, the device UI can be implemented consistent with a camera, or avirtual camera, view for intuitive use of such devices. The pointermechanism of the device could also switch based on whether the user wascurrently in live view mode for the camera or not. Moreover, assumingsufficient processing power and storage, real time image processingcould discern an object of interest and based on image signatures,overlay POI information over such image in a similar manner to the aboveembodiments. In this regard, with the device provided herein, a varietyof gestures can be employed to zoom in zoom out, perform tilt detectionfor looking down or up, or panning across a field of view to obtain arange of POIs associated with the panning scope.

With respect to a representative set of user settings, a number ormaximum number of desired endpoints delivered as results can beconfigured. How to filter can also be configured, e.g., 5 most likely, 5closest, 5 closest to 100 feet away, 5 within category or sub-category,alphabetical order, etc. In each case, based on a pointing direction,implicitly a cone or other cross section across physical space isdefined as a scope of possible points of interest. In this regard, thewidth or deepness of this cone or cross section can be configurable bythe user to control the accuracy of the pointing, e.g., narrow or wideradius of points and how far out to search.

To support processing of vector information and aggregating POIdatabases from third parties, a variety of storage techniques, such asrelational storage techniques can be used. For instance, Virtual Earthdata can be used for mapping and aggregation of POI data can occur fromthird parties such as Tele Atlas, NavTeq, etc. In this regard,businesses not in the POI database will want to be discovered and thus,the service provides a similar, but far superior from a spatialrelevance standpoint, Yellow Pages experiences where businesses willdesire to have their additional information, such as menus, pricesheets, coupons, pictures, virtual tours, etc. accessible via thesystem.

In addition, a synchronization platform or framework can keep theroaming caches in sync, thereby capturing what users are looking at andefficiently processing changes. Or, where a user goes offline, localchanges can be recorded, and when the user goes back online, such localchanges can be synchronized to the network or service store. Also, sincethe users are in effect pulling information they care about in the hereand in the now through the act of pointing with the device, the systemgenerates high cost per thousand impression (CPM) rates as compared toother forms of demographic targeting. Moreover, the system drivesimpulse buys, since the user may not be physically present in a store,but the user may be near the object, and by being nearby and pointing atthe store, information about a sale concerning the object can be sent tothe user.

As mentioned, different location subsystems, such as towertriangulation, GPS, A-GPS, E-GPS, etc. have different tolerances. Forinstance, with GPS, tolerances can be achieved to about 10 meters. WithA-GPS, tolerances can be tightened to about 12 feet. In turn, withE-GPS, tolerance may be a different error margin still. Compensating forthe different tolerances is part of the interpretation engine fordetermining intersection of a pointing vector and a set of points ofinterest. In addition, a distance to project out the pointing vector canbe explicit, configurable, contextual, etc.

In this regard, the various embodiments described herein can employ anyalgorithm for distinguishing among boundaries of the endpoints, such asboundary boxes, or rectangles, triangles, circles, etc. As a defaultradius, e.g., 150 feet could be selected, and such value can beconfigured or be context sensitive to the service provided. On-line realestate sites can be leveraged for existing POI information. Sincedifferent POI databases may track different information at differentgranularities, a way of normalizing the POI data according to oneconvention or standard can also be implemented so that the residentialreal estate location data of Zillow can be integrated with GPSinformation from Starbucks of all the Starbucks by country.

In addition, similar techniques can be implemented in a moving vehicleclient that includes GPS, compass, accelerometer, etc. By filteringbased on scenarios (e.g., I need gas), different subsets of points ofinterest (e.g., gas stations) can be determined for the user based notonly on distance, but actual time it may take to get to the point ofinterest. In this regard, while a gas station may be 100 yards to theright off the highway, the car may have already passed the correspondingexit, and thus more useful information to provide is what gas stationwill take the least amount of time to drive from a current locationbased on direction/location so as to provide predictive points ofinterest that are up ahead on the road, and not already aged points ofinterest that would require turning around from one's destination inorder to get to them.

For existing motor vehicle navigation devices, or other conventionalportable GPS navigation devices, where a device does not nativelyinclude directional means such as a compass, the device can have anextension slot that accommodates direction information from an externaldirectional device, such as a compass. Similarly, for laptops or otherportable electronic devices, such devices can be outfitted with a cardor board with a slot for a compass. While any of the services describedherein can make web service calls as part of the pointing and retrievalof endpoint process, as mentioned, one advantageous feature of a user'slocality in real space is that it is inherently more limited than ageneral Internet search for information. As a result, a limited amountof data can be predictively maintained on a user's device in cachememory and properly aged out as data becomes stale.

In another aspect of any of the embodiments described herein, becausestateless messaging is employed, if communications drop with onenetwork, the device can begin further communicating via another network.For instance, a device has two channels, and a user gets on a bus, butno longer have GPRS or GPS activity. Nonetheless the user is able to getthe information the device needs from some other channel. Just because atower, or satellites are down, does not mean that the device cannotconnect through an alternative channel, e.g., the bus's GPS locationinformation via Bluetooth.

With respect to exemplary mobile client architectures, a representativedevice can include, as described variously herein, client Side Storagefor housing and providing fast access to cached POI data in the currentregion including associated dynamically updated or static information,such as annotations, coupons from businesses, etc. This includes usagedata tracking and storage. In addition, regional data can be a cachedsubset of the larger service data, always updated based on the region inwhich the client is roaming. For instance, POI data could include as anon-limiting example, the following information:

POI coordinates and data //{−70.26322, 43.65412, “STARBUCK'S”}

Localized annotations //Menu, prices, hours of operation, etc

Coupons and ads //Classes of coupons (new user, returning, etc)

Support for different kinds of information (e.g., blob v structuredinformation (blob for storage and media; structured for tags,annotations, etc.)

A device can also include usage data and preferences to hold settings aswell as usage data such as coupons “activated,” waypoints, businessesencountered per day, other users encountered, etc. to be analyzed by thecloud services for business intelligence analysis and reporting.

A device can also include a continuous update mechanism, which is aservice that maintains the client's cached copy of a current regionupdated with the latest. Among other ways, this can be achieved with aping-to-pull model that pre-fetches and swaps out the client's cachedregion using travel direction and speed to facilitate roaming amongdifferent regions. This is effectively a paging mechanism for upcomingPOIs. This also includes sending a new or modified POI for the region(with annotations+coupons), sending a new or modified annotation for thePOIs (with coupons), or sending a new or modified coupon for the POI.

A device can also include a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) havingcomponents responsible for abstracting the way the client communicateswith the measuring instruments, e.g., the GPS driver for positioning andLOS accuracy (e.g., open eGPS), magnetic compass for heading androtational information (e.g., gyroscopic), one or more accelerometersfor gestured input and tilt (achieves 3D positional algorithms, assuminggyroscopic compass).

As described earlier, a device can also include methods/interfaces tomake REST calls via GPRS/Wi-Fi and a file system and storage for storingand retrieving the application data and settings.

A device can also include user input and methods to map input to thevirtual keys. For instance, one non-limiting way to accomplish userinput is to have softkeys as follows, though it is to be understood agreat variety of user inputs can be used to achieve interaction with theuser interfaces of the pointing based services.

SK up/down: //Up and down on choices

SK right, SK ok/confirm: //Choose an option or drill down/next page

SK left, SK cancel/back, //Go back to a previous window, cancel

Exit/Incoming Call events //Exit the app or minimize

In addition, a representative device can include a graphics andwindowing stack to render the client side UI, as well as an audio stackto play sounds/alerts.

As mentioned, such a device may also include spatial and mathcomputational components including a set of APIs to perform 3D collisiontesting between subdivided surfaces such as spherical shells (e.g., asimple hit testing model to adopt and boundary definitions for POIs),rotate points, and cull as appropriate from conic sections.

As described in various embodiments herein, FIG. 22 illustrates aprocess for a device when location (e.g., GPS) and direction (e.g.,compass) events occur. Upon the detection of a location and directionevent, at 2200, for POIs in the device's local cache, a group of POIsare determined that pass an intersection algorithm for the direction ofpointing of the device. At 2210, POIs in the group can be represented insome fashion on a UI, e.g., full view if only 1 POI, categorized view,2-D map view, 3-D perspective view, or user images if other users, etc.The possibilities for representation are limitless; the embodimentsdescribed herein are intuitive based on the general notion of pointingbased direction services.

At 2220, upon selection of a POI, static content is determined and anydynamic content is acquired via synchronization. When new data becomesavailable, it is downloaded to stay up to date. At 2230, POI informationis filtered further by user specific information (e.g., if it is theuser's first time at the store, returning customer, loyalty programmember, live baseball game offer for team clothing discounts, etc.). At2240, static and dynamic content that is up to date is rendered for thePOI. In addition, updates and/or interaction with POI information isallowed which can be synced back to the service.

Exemplary Networked and Distributed Environments

One of ordinary skill in the art can appreciate that the variousembodiments of methods and devices for pointing based services andrelated embodiments described herein can be implemented in connectionwith any computer or other client or server device, which can bedeployed as part of a computer network or in a distributed computingenvironment, and can be connected to any kind of data store. In thisregard, the various embodiments described herein can be implemented inany computer system or environment having any number of memory orstorage units, and any number of applications and processes occurringacross any number of storage units. This includes, but is not limitedto, an environment with server computers and client computers deployedin a network environment or a distributed computing environment, havingremote or local storage.

FIG. 23 provides a non-limiting schematic diagram of an exemplarynetworked or distributed computing environment. The distributedcomputing environment comprises computing objects 2310, 2312, etc. andcomputing objects or devices 2320, 2322, 2324, 2326, 2328, etc., whichmay include programs, methods, data stores, programmable logic, etc., asrepresented by applications 2330, 2332, 2334, 2336, 2338. It can beappreciated that objects 2310, 2312, etc. and computing objects ordevices 2320, 2322, 2324, 2326, 2328, etc. may comprise differentdevices, such as PDAs, audio/video devices, mobile phones, MP3 players,laptops, etc.

Each object 2310, 2312, etc. and computing objects or devices 2320,2322, 2324, 2326, 2328, etc. can communicate with one or more otherobjects 2310, 2312, etc. and computing objects or devices 2320, 2322,2324, 2326, 2328, etc. by way of the communications network 2340, eitherdirectly or indirectly. Even though illustrated as a single element inFIG. 23, network 2340 may comprise other computing objects and computingdevices that provide services to the system of FIG. 23, and/or mayrepresent multiple interconnected networks, which are not shown. Eachobject 2310, 2312, etc. or 2320, 2322, 2324, 2326, 2328, etc. can alsocontain an application, such as applications 2330, 2332, 2334, 2336,2338, that might make use of an API, or other object, software, firmwareand/or hardware, suitable for communication with or implementation ofthe predicted interaction model as provided in accordance with variousembodiments.

There are a variety of systems, components, and network configurationsthat support distributed computing environments. For example, computingsystems can be connected together by wired or wireless systems, by localnetworks or widely distributed networks. Currently, many networks arecoupled to the Internet, which provides an infrastructure for widelydistributed computing and encompasses many different networks, thoughany network infrastructure can be used for exemplary communications madeincident to the techniques as described in various embodiments.

Thus, a host of network topologies and network infrastructures, such asclient/server, peer-to-peer, or hybrid architectures, can be utilized.In a client/server architecture, particularly a networked system, aclient is usually a computer that accesses shared network resourcesprovided by another computer, e.g., a server. In the illustration ofFIG. 23, as a non-limiting example, computers 2320, 2322, 2324, 2326,2328, etc. can be thought of as clients and computers 2310, 2312, etc.can be thought of as servers where servers 2310, 2312, etc. provide dataservices, such as receiving data from client computers 2320, 2322, 2324,2326, 2328, etc., storing of data, processing of data, transmitting datato client computers 2320, 2322, 2324, 2326, 2328, etc., although anycomputer can be considered a client, a server, or both, depending on thecircumstances. Any of these computing devices may be processing data, orrequesting services or tasks that may implicate the predictedinteraction model and related techniques as described herein for one ormore embodiments.

A server is typically a remote computer system accessible over a remoteor local network, such as the Internet or wireless networkinfrastructures. The client process may be active in a first computersystem, and the server process may be active in a second computersystem, communicating with one another over a communications medium,thus providing distributed functionality and allowing multiple clientsto take advantage of the information-gathering capabilities of theserver. Any software objects utilized pursuant to the direction basedservices can be provided standalone, or distributed across multiplecomputing devices or objects.

In a network environment in which the communications network/bus 2340 isthe Internet, for example, the servers 2310, 2312, etc. can be Webservers with which the clients 2320, 2322, 2324, 2326, 2328, etc.communicate via any of a number of known protocols, such as thehypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Servers 2310, 2312, etc. may alsoserve as clients 2320, 2322, 2324, 2326, 2328, etc., as may becharacteristic of a distributed computing environment.

Exemplary Computing Device

As mentioned, various embodiments described herein apply to any devicewherein it may be desirable to perform pointing based services, andpredict interactions with points of interest. It should be understood,therefore, that handheld, portable and other computing devices andcomputing objects of all kinds are contemplated for use in connectionwith the various embodiments described herein, i.e., anywhere that adevice may request pointing based services. Accordingly, the belowgeneral purpose remote computer described below in FIG. 24 is but oneexample, and the embodiments of the subject disclosure may beimplemented with any client having network/bus interoperability andinteraction.

Although not required, any of the embodiments can partly be implementedvia an operating system, for use by a developer of services for a deviceor object, and/or included within application software that operates inconnection with the operable component(s). Software may be described inthe general context of computer executable instructions, such as programmodules, being executed by one or more computers, such as clientworkstations, servers or other devices. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that network interactions may be practiced with a variety ofcomputer system configurations and protocols.

FIG. 24 thus illustrates an example of a suitable computing systemenvironment 2400 in which one or more of the embodiments may beimplemented, although as made clear above, the computing systemenvironment 2400 is only one example of a suitable computing environmentand is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use orfunctionality of any of the embodiments. Neither should the computingenvironment 2400 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirementrelating to any one or combination of components illustrated in theexemplary operating environment 2400.

With reference to FIG. 24, an exemplary remote device for implementingone or more embodiments herein can include a general purpose computingdevice in the form of a handheld computer 2410. Components of handheldcomputer 2410 may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit2420, a system memory 2430, and a system bus 2421 that couples varioussystem components including the system memory to the processing unit2420.

Computer 2410 typically includes a variety of computer readable mediaand can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 2410.The system memory 2430 may include computer storage media in the form ofvolatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) and/orrandom access memory (RAM). By way of example, and not limitation,memory 2430 may also include an operating system, application programs,other program modules, and program data.

A user may enter commands and information into the computer 2410 throughinput devices 2440 A monitor or other type of display device is alsoconnected to the system bus 2421 via an interface, such as outputinterface 2450. In addition to a monitor, computers may also includeother peripheral output devices such as speakers and a printer, whichmay be connected through output interface 2450.

The computer 2410 may operate in a networked or distributed environmentusing logical connections to one or more other remote computers, such asremote computer 2470. The remote computer 2470 may be a personalcomputer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or othercommon network node, or any other remote media consumption ortransmission device, and may include any or all of the elementsdescribed above relative to the computer 2410. The logical connectionsdepicted in FIG. 24 include a network 2471, such local area network(LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), but may also include othernetworks/buses. Such networking environments are commonplace in homes,offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet.

As mentioned above, while exemplary embodiments have been described inconnection with various computing devices, networks and advertisingarchitectures, the underlying concepts may be applied to any networksystem and any computing device or system in which it is desirable toderive information about surrounding points of interest.

There are multiple ways of implementing one or more of the embodimentsdescribed herein, e.g., an appropriate API, tool kit, driver code,operating system, control, standalone or downloadable software object,etc. which enables applications and services to use the pointing basedservices. Embodiments may be contemplated from the standpoint of an API(or other software object), as well as from a software or hardwareobject that provides pointing platform services in accordance with oneor more of the described embodiments. Various implementations andembodiments described herein may have aspects that are wholly inhardware, partly in hardware and partly in software, as well as insoftware.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example,instance, or illustration. For the avoidance of doubt, the subjectmatter disclosed herein is not limited by such examples. In addition,any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarilyto be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects ordesigns, nor is it meant to preclude equivalent exemplary structures andtechniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Furthermore, tothe extent that the terms “includes,” “has,” “contains,” and othersimilar words are used in either the detailed description or the claims,for the avoidance of doubt, such terms are intended to be inclusive in amanner similar to the term “comprising” as an open transition wordwithout precluding any additional or other elements.

As mentioned, the various techniques described herein may be implementedin connection with hardware or software or, where appropriate, with acombination of both. As used herein, the terms “component,” “system” andthe like are likewise intended to refer to a computer-related entity,either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, orsoftware in execution. For example, a component may be, but is notlimited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, anobject, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or acomputer. By way of illustration, both an application running oncomputer and the computer can be a component. One or more components mayreside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component maybe localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers.

The aforementioned systems have been described with respect tointeraction between several components. It can be appreciated that suchsystems and components can include those components or specifiedsub-components, some of the specified components or sub-components,and/or additional components, and according to various permutations andcombinations of the foregoing. Sub-components can also be implemented ascomponents communicatively coupled to other components rather thanincluded within parent components (hierarchical). Additionally, itshould be noted that one or more components may be combined into asingle component providing aggregate functionality or divided intoseveral separate sub-components, and any one or more middle layers, suchas a management layer, may be provided to communicatively couple to suchsub-components in order to provide integrated functionality. Anycomponents described herein may also interact with one or more othercomponents not specifically described herein but generally known bythose of skill in the art.

In view of the exemplary systems described supra, methodologies that maybe implemented in accordance with the disclosed subject matter will bebetter appreciated with reference to the flowcharts of the variousfigures. While for purposes of simplicity of explanation, themethodologies are shown and described as a series of blocks, it is to beunderstood and appreciated that the claimed subject matter is notlimited by the order of the blocks, as some blocks may occur indifferent orders and/or concurrently with other blocks from what isdepicted and described herein. Where non-sequential, or branched, flowis illustrated via flowchart, it can be appreciated that various otherbranches, flow paths, and orders of the blocks, may be implemented whichachieve the same or a similar result. Moreover, not all illustratedblocks may be required to implement the methodologies describedhereinafter.

While the various embodiments have been described in connection with thepreferred embodiments of the various figures, it is to be understoodthat other similar embodiments may be used or modifications andadditions may be made to the described embodiment for performing thesame function without deviating therefrom. Still further, one or moreaspects of the above described embodiments may be implemented in oracross a plurality of processing chips or devices, and storage maysimilarly be effected across a plurality of devices. Therefore, thepresent invention should not be limited to any single embodiment, butrather should be construed in breadth and scope in accordance with theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mobile device comprising: a location subsystemthat includes a GPS subsystem; a processor; a memory component, and adata store having stored instructions which, when executed by theprocessor, cause the mobile device to manage the memory component andpoint of interest information stored on and removed from the memorycomponent, the stored instructions further being configured to cause themobile device to perform the following: the mobile device detectingdirection information obtained from a directional subsystem based on anorientation associated with the mobile device, the directional subsystemincluding a digital compass; the mobile device detecting positioninformation with the location subsystem as a function of a position ofthe mobile device; the mobile device storing, in the memory component,point of interest information for one or more points of interest thatwas previously received by the mobile device; the mobile deviceidentifying a region of real space that the mobile device is unlikely toencounter in the future based at least in part on the directioninformation and the position information; and the mobile device agingout and automatically removing, from the memory component, point ofinterest information for at least one of the points of interest in theidentified region that the mobile device is unlikely to encounter basedat least in part on the detected direction and position information,freeing up space in the memory component.
 2. The mobile device of claim1, wherein the direction subsystem is detachably connected to the mobiledevice through an extension slot of the mobile device.
 3. The mobiledevice of claim 2, wherein the mobile device comprises a vehicle GPSdevice.
 4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile devicecomprises a vehicle computer.
 5. The mobile device of claim 1, whereinthe mobile device comprises a bike computer.
 6. The mobile device ofclaim 1, wherein the mobile device is configured as a visor or glasses.7. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the removal of the point ofinterest information from the memory component is further based at leastin part on an age of the point of interest information.
 8. The mobiledevice of claim 1, wherein the removal of the point of interestinformation from the memory component is further based at least in parton a time of the day.
 9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein theremoval of the point of interest information from the memory componentis further based at least in part on an amount of unused space in thememory component.
 10. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the removalof the point of interest information from the memory component is basedat least in part on a determined distance of the mobile device from theone or more points of interest corresponding to the point of interestinformation and a motion of the mobile device.
 11. The mobile device ofclaim 1, wherein the memory component comprises a local cache of themobile device.
 12. A computing system comprising: a mobile device havinga processor and a memory component, the computing system beingconfigured to detect first direction information based on an orientationof the mobile device; the computing system detecting first positioninformation as a function of a position of the mobile device; thecomputing system being configured to obtain and store, in the memorycomponent of the mobile device, point of interest information for one ormore points of interest based at least in part on the first directioninformation and the first position information; the computing systembeing configured to identify a region of real space that the mobiledevice is unlikely to encounter in the future based at least in part onat least new direction information or new position information; and thecomputing system being configured to selectively and automaticallyremove, from the memory component of the mobile device, point ofinterest information for at least one of the points of interest in theidentified region that the mobile device is unlikely to encounter basedat least in part on the new detected direction information or the newposition information, freeing up space in the memory component.
 13. Thecomputing system of claim 12, wherein the removal of the point ofinterest information from the memory component is further based at leastin part on an amount of unused space in the memory component.
 14. Thecomputing system of claim 13, wherein the removal of the point ofinterest information from the memory component is further based at leastin part on an age of the point of interest information that is removed.15. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the removal of the pointof interest information from the memory component is based at least inpart on a determined distance of the mobile device from the one or morepoints of interest corresponding to the point of interest informationthat is removed.
 16. The computing system of claim 1, wherein thedirection subsystem is detects first position information from a digitalcompass that is detachably connected to the computing system through anextension slot of the computing system.
 17. The computing system ofclaim 16, wherein the computing system is integrated into a vehicle. 18.The computing system of claim 12, wherein the computing system isintegrated into a visor or glasses.
 19. A method of managing a memorycomponent of a mobile device and storage of point of interestinformation which is selectively stored on and removed from the memorycomponent, the method comprising: determining direction informationbased on an orientation for the mobile device; determining positioninformation as a function of a position for the mobile device; storing,in the memory component of the mobile device, point of interestinformation for one or more points of interest, the point of interestinformation having been previously received at the mobile device;identifying a region of real space that the mobile device is unlikely toencounter in the future based at least in part on the directioninformation or the position information; and aging out and automaticallyremoving, from the memory component of the mobile device, point ofinterest information for at least one of the points of interest in theidentified region that the mobile device is unlikely to encounter basedat least in part on the direction or position information, freeing upspace in the memory component.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein themethod further includes deleting the aged out point of interestinformation upon determining both (1) that the aged out point ofinterest information is a particular age and (2) that the mobile deviceis a particular distance from the one or more points of interestcorresponding to the aged out point of interest information.